Using Disko, the vsib_record GUI
Configuration
The file ~/.disko_config contains local configuration information such
as antenna name, data disk locations and default parameters for
vsib_record. Before using Disko for the first time please look through
~/.disko_config to check that it suits your location.
Using Disko
When logged on to the recorder PC, type:
disko
After a few seconds the GUI should appear. Check that the Antenna name
at the top of the interface is correct. If not, check ~/.disko_config.
Disk information
Below the antenna and time information is a table of available data
disks, their sizes and capacities (Figure 1). This table is updated
every 10 seconds. The
Time left
column indicates how much recording time is available on each disk
based on the data rate for the current configuration. Select the disk
you want by clicking on the appropriate radio button on the left-hand
side of the table.
Figure 1: Available disks and their capacities
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Recorder configuration
Below the Disk section of the GUI is the section that controls data
file naming, the recoding mode, start time and duration (Figure 2). In
the
Experiment section, type
in the name of the experiment. This
information is used to label the data files, so it's important to fill
it in correctly. All experiments get their own subdirectory (indicated
in the scrolling log) except data files for the VT02 seried of
fringe-check experiments which are all put in a FringeCheck
subdirectory. This helps to identify them as files that can be removed
once fringe checking has been completed. Next choose the
Bandwidth per channel and select the
channels to be recorded next to
Record
mode. Note that the
Bit rate
will change accordingly, as will the
Time
left indicator in the disk section. If you want to use a
non-standard mode, set
Record mode
to "other" and adjust the
Number of
bits and
Compression mode
as required.
Figure 2: Recorder configuration and interaction.
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The next session allows you to chose between a scheduled or manual
start of the recorder and to set the recording duration. Choose between
a
Scheduled start, in which
case the start time and
Duration
must be specified, or
Manual start,
in which case only the recording
Duration
needs to be set. When setting up for a
Scheduled
start, pressing the [Now] button will set the start time to the
current time which can then be increased a little if desired.
Once the recorder configuration has been done, vsib_record can be told
to start by pressing [Start]. If for any reason you wich to stop
recording early, press [Stop].
Monitoring during recording
While the recorder is running, disko monitors vsib_record output and
issues a warning if it detects a problem. Disko currently checks for
the following:
- Missed 1PPS
- If a 1PPS is missed, it is logged and a bell is sounded.
- Disko maintains a buffer of up to the last 20 1PPS
verifications. If more than 5 of the last 20 are missed, a popup window
issues a warning and there is more annoying beeping.
- BIGBUF size
- Disko will issue a warning if the size of BIGBUF gets below 80%
- A popup window and beeping if BIGBUF gets below 50% capacity.
This is usually a good indication that vsib_record is about to die.
- Disk capacity.
- If the disk reaches 95% capacity, a warning message is issued
and the the user is encouraged to change disks and/or delete some data.
The recorder monitoring section shows the 1PPS and Bigbuf status during
recording (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Recorder monitoring information.
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The log
The bottom section of the GUI shows a scrolling log (Figure 4). Disko
will write any important information to the log which is also sent to a
file in the log_dir directory as configued in ~/.disko_config. You can
also add your own comments to the log by typing in the
Comment section and clicking [OK] or
pressing [Enter] when finished. To save typing, some commonly used
comments can be inserted from the
Template
comments drop-down menu. The time the comment is entered is
automatically prepended and placed in the log.
Figure 4: The scrolling log and comment input section.
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Jim Lovell
